The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-11-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Discourse on the Duty of Exer-
cising FOrgiv1ng Spirit,
And Following the Apostolic Injunction to
"Let Not the Sun Go Down Upon
Your Wrath''-The Evils of
MaIevoIent Disposition.

''Forgiveness Before Sundown' was the
theme of a recent sermon by Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage at the Brooklyn Taberna-
Gle, the text being:
Let not the sun go down your wrath.-Ephe-
Sians iv., p.
DR.. Talmage said: What pillow en-
broidered of all colors hath the dying day I
The cradle of clouds from which the sun
rises is beautiful enough, but it is sur
passed by the many-colored mausoleum
in which at evening it is buried. Sunset
among the mountainsi It almost takes
ones breath away to recall the scene. The
long shadows stretching over the plain
make the glory of the departing light, on
the tip-top crags and struck aslant
through the foliage, the more conspicuous.
Saffron and gold, purple and crimson
commingIed. All the castles of cloud in
confagration. Burning Moscows on
the sky. Hanging gardens
of roses at their deepest
blush. Banners of vapor, red as if from
carnage, in the battle of the elements
The hunter among the Adirondacks and
the Swiss villager among the Alps know
what is a sunset among the mountains.
After a storm at sea the rolling grandeur
into which the sun goes down to battle at
nighfall is something to make weird and
splendid dreams out of for a lifetime. AL
exander Smith in his poem compares the
sunset to 1.-The barren beach Of hell" but
this wonderful spectacle of nature makes
me think of the Furnished wall of Heaven.
Paul in prison writing my text remembers
some of the gorgeous sunsets among the
mountains of Asia Minor, and how he had
often seen the towers of Damascus blaze
in the close of the Oriental days, and he
flashes out that memory in the text when
he says:
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Sublime and all-suggestive duty for
people then and people now. Forgiveness
before sundown. He who never feels the
throb of Indignation is imbecile. He
who can walk among the injustices
of the world; inflicted upon him
self and others, without flush of
cheek, or fash of eye, or agitation of nat
ure, is either in sympathy with wrong or
semi-idiotic. When Ananias, tho high
priest, ordered the constables of the court
room to smite Paul in the mouth, Paul
fired up and said:
God shall smite thee, thou VIII tied wall.
In the sentence Immediately before
my text, Paul commanded the Ept0aians:
Be We angry and sin not.
It all depends on what you are mad at
and how long the feeling lasts whether
exasperations. Saul after David. Succoth
after Gideon, Korah after Moses, the Pas.
quins after Augustus, the Pharisees after
Christ, and every one had his pursuers,
and we are swindled, or belied, or misrep-
resented, or prosecuted, or in some way
wronged, and the danger is that healthful
Indignation shall become baleful spite,
and that our feelings settle down into a
prolonged outpouring of temper dispeas-
ing to God and ruinous to ourselves,
and hence the important injunction of the
text:
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Why that limitation to one's anger?
Why that period of flaming vapor set to
punctuate a flaming disposition? What
has the sunset got to do with one's resent
full emotions? Was it a haphazard sent-
ment written by Paul without special sig
nificance?
No, no; think of five reasons why we
should not let the sun set before our tenn
per sets.
First. because twelve hours is long
enough to be cross about any wrong in
ficted upon US. Nothing is so exhausting
to physical health or mental faculty as
protracted indulgence of iu-humor. 1t
racks the nervous system. 1t hurts the
digestion. 1t heats the blood in brain and
heart until the whole body is first over
heated and then depressed. Besides that,
it sours the disposition, turns one aside
from his legitimate work, expends ener-
gies that ought to be better employed, and
does us more harm than it does our antag-
onist. Paul gives US a good, wide allow
ance of time for legitimate denunciation,
from six o'clock to six O'Clock, but
says: "Stop therer Watch the descend
ing orb of day, and when it reaches
the horizon take a reef in your disposi-
tiOn. UnlOOse your collar and cool off.
Change the subject to something delight
fully pleasant Unroll your tight fist and
shake hands with some one. Bank up the
fires at the curfew bell. Drive the prowl-
ing dog of enmity back TO its kennel. The
hours of this morning will pass by, and
the afternoon will arrive, and the sun will
begin to set, and beg you on its blazing
hearth throw all your feuds, invectives
and satires.
Other things being equal, the man who
preserves good temper will come out
ahead. An Old essayist says the cele-
brated John Henderson, Of Bristol, Eng,
was at a dining party where political ex-
citement ran high and the debate got
angry, and while Henderson was speak
ing, his opponent, unable to answer his
argument dashed a glass Of wine in his
face, when the speaker deliberat tely wiped
the liquid from his face and said: "This,
sir is a depression; now, if you please, for
the main argument" While worldly phil
osophy could help but very few to such
eduipoise of spirit, the grace of God could
help any man to such a triumph. "Im-
possible" you say; 81 would have either
left the table in anger or have knocked
the man down."
But have come to believe that nothing
is impossible if God helps, since what
saw at Bsth-Shan faith cure in London,
England, two summers ago. While the
religious service was going on, Rev. DIR.
Boardman, glorious mani since gone to
his heavenly rest, was telling the sick
people present that Christ was there as Of
old to heal all diseases, and that, If they
would only believe, their sickness would
depart. 1 saw a woman near me, with
hand and arm twisted Of rheumatism, and
her wrist was fiery with Inflammation,
and it looked like those cases Of chronic
rheumatism which we have all seen and
sympathized with, cases beyond all hu-
man healing. At the preachers reitera-
ton of the words: "Will you believe? Do
you believe? DO you believe now?7 /
head this poor woman say with an EN-
phasis which sounded through the build
ing: 'T do believed" And then she laid
her twisted arm and hand out as straight
as your arm and hand, or mine. If / had
seen one rise from the dead /
would not have been much more
thrilled. Since then believe that God will
do any thing in answer to our prayer and
in answer to our faith. and he can heal
our bodies, and If our soul is all twisted
and misshapen of revenge and hate and
infamed with sinful proclivity be can
straighten that also and make it well and
clean. Aye, you viii not postpoHe till
sundown forgiveness Of enemies you
4
may be put into the catalogue OF the ''all
fhings'' tnat work together for good to
those that love Cod" have had multi
tudes Of friends, but have found in my
own experience that God 50 arranged it
that the greatest opportunities Of useful